To Protect One's Best Friend
by First Hokage Hashirama Senju
Summary: Pushed to the limit, and with Neji badly wounded, Lee must resort to opening the Eight Inner Gates.
1. Eight Gates

**To Protect One's Best Friend**

**Chapter 1- Eight Gates**

* * *

Rock Lee, Chūnin ninja of Hidden Leaf village, jumped across the tree branches at high speed. The bark of the trees was dark brown, and the leaves were lush green.

He had fair skin and his eyebrows were black and very thick. His eyes were rounded, black, and had lower eyelashes. His black hair was in a bowl-cut style. His clothing consisted of a green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers. He had a forehead protector wrapped around his waist, with the Hidden Leaf insignia on the metal piece.

He landed heavily on the grass covered ground next to a tree.

Lee had bandages wrapped around his hands, wrists, and lower arms. Over his jumpsuit, he wore a green Hidden Leaf flak jacket inclusive of six scroll pouches, neck guards, shoulder padding, and a zipper on the front.

The taijutsu specialist laid Neji Hyuga, his teammate, against the tree. "Stay here." He saw Neji's eyes were closed. _He's unconscious, and his heavy breathing…not good. Either blood loss or poison. _

Neji had very fair skin and his forehead protector was gone, exposing the Hyuga cursed seal on his forehead. It was in the shape of an X with horizontal lines that slightly curved on both sides. His long black hair was no longer tied up; the tie near the bottom was cut during the battle. His white shirt was stained with blood, his blood from several cuts on the front of his torso. His sleeves were ripped up. His dark navy gray apron tied around his waist and white paints were dirty and bloodstained. His ninja sandals were still intact though dirty.

A voice reached Lee's ears. "What's wrong? Why do you hide? You know, your friend has an ability that's much desired by my leader."

Lee's eyes narrowed, he stood stood up, turned around, and walked forward to put himself in front of Neji. His anger boiled within but he hid it. "Over my dead body." _Guy Sensei, I have to do this, to protect my best friend! _He brought his arms up so they were crossed in front of him, palms facing outwards. "The Eight Inner Gates. First Gate, Gate of Opening! Open!" He felt energy surge through every inch of his body, unlocking one hundred percent of his muscle strength. Several veins popped up on the center of his forehead.

"Second Gate, Gate of Healing! Open!" Lee felt more power rush throughout his body and more veins popped up on the left of his forehead.

A great wind started to blow upwards around Lee. "Third Gate, Gate of Life! Open!" Lee felt his blood flow increase, turning his skin a darker shade of red while streams of bright blue chakra swirled around him. Lee felt the enemy's chakra signature drawing closer.

A mocking voice came. "What's wrong? Upset I hurt your friend? If you're so angry, why don't you come out?"

Lee felt rage boiling inside and found it harder to contain it. "Fourth Gate! Gate of Pain! Open!" The swirling chakra streams around Lee thickened and he felt more power surging through his body.

Footsteps approached, and halted. The enemy ninja could only stare at Lee, his eyes wide open, struck with the full force of killing intent. "Y...you…the… Eight Gates!" He struggled to move but his body would not budge. "W-wait! I'll leave!" It dawned upon him, the realization he was going to die, and die painfully.

The Sound ninja had dark gray eyes, very thin eyebrows, and very short silver hair. His undershirt was purple and his flak jacket inclusive of zipper on the front, neck guards, and shoulder padding was the same color. His boots were dark blue.

"Fifth Gate! Gate of Limit! **Open!" **Lee felt tremendous power surging through him. The chakra streams were thick and bright, and a thin green aura of chakra covered his body. He kicked off the ground, and appeared right in front of the Sound ninja, his face less than a foot away from the enemy's.

The Sound ninja's eyes widened. "**Shit!**"

"You may hurt me." Lee landed a crushing uppercut which connected with the Sound ninja's chin, shattering most of the man's teeth in the process while he flew upwards a good forty feet. "You may insult me." He leapt off the ground with great force, leaving cracks at the point of takeoff. "But for not only threatening my best friend…" He landed a series of blazing fast punches, shattering every rib in the enemy's body. "You tried to kill him!" He kicked the Sound Ninja away, a bandage wrapped around his waist. He pulled him back in, tearing the bandage. "I **will** stop you!" He landed a crushing blow in the center of the torso, sending the enemy downwards with a ground shattering landing while holding onto the bandage. He was pulled downwards, finally tearing the bandage off. _Now! _He extended his knee and landed knee first into the enemy's gut.

Blood flew out of the Sound ninja's mouth, splattering all over the front of Lee's flak jacket. His eyes were wide, unblinking and unmoving. His body still and going cold.

Lee stood up and staggered. _Not good, used too much chakra. _He staggered and walked towards where Neji was, his vision blurring. _Not going to… _He came within view of the Hyuga, fell to his knees, and fell front first onto the ground. His head laid on the side, and he heard a voice which sounded like it was a thousand miles away.

Running footsteps approached. "There! Sakura, check on Neji! Ino, check on Lee! Hope we're not too late!"

Darkness overcame Lee. _Shizune… _Everything went black.


	2. Awakening

**Chapter 2- Awakening**

* * *

Rock Lee opened his eyes wearily. _How long was I out? _ He was laying on a bed, his head on the soft pillow. The first thing he saw was the gray ceiling of the hospital room. He turned his head to the left, and saw Neji laying in another hospital bed nearby. He was currently in the black shirt and gray pants the patients in the Hidden Leaf Hospital wore.

The door opened. A medical ninja, Atsu Hyuga, walked in and saw Lee. "Finally, you are awake. Out for a day." She quickly walked to Lee's bed. "How are you feeling?"

Her eyes were large circles tinted with lavender, the appearance of the Byakugan. Her hair was black, she usually had it down her back to her waist but had it tied up into a bun at the back of her head. She was dressed in a white medical shirt with tight sleeves and pants with matching shoes. The kanji for 'medical ninja' was imprinted onto the left side of the shirt.

"Better than yesterday." Lee looked at Atsu. "How is Neji?"

The medical ninja stopped at the side of Lee's bed. "He will be fine, considering what happened. Paralytic poison and blood loss."

Rock Lee looked at Neji then Atsu. "Considering the nature of the poison, it sounds like they were going to...take him to the Sound village."

Atsu nodded. "Likely. And not a good thing at all. Evil snake as leader. Seems to have a liking towards younger people." She shuddered slightly. "Orochimaru just creeps me out, gives me the heebie jeebies. Don't like snakes too much, and he's like a snake that walks on legs."

Lee looked at Neji again. "He's likely waking up."

Atsu turned around and quickly walked to Neji's bed. Lee was right. "Feeling okay?"

Neji opened his eyes, and saw the Hyuga healer. "Feeling weak."

Atsu nodded. "That is normal, even more so since you were poisoned and had blood loss. Most would be out for longer."

Neji closed his eyes to rest. "Did Lee finish them off?"

Atsu smiled. "Yes he did." She looked at Lee, then back to Neji. "Though it was a bit overkill on the last one. Every bone was in at least two pieces, and the organs were basically liquefied."

Neji's opened his eyes. "How many gates?"

Lee's voice was heard. "Five gates, overpowered them most likely."

Neji turned to Lee. "At least we got out of that alive, an S ranked mission."

Atsu nodded. "On more than a few occasions, one survives while the other does not." She gazed down on the floor. "Quite a few times the survivor suffers from survivor's guilt, it's saddening to see. Glad it didn't turn out like that this time."

Lee smiled and gave his thumbs up pose. "We need to get stronger, so we don't end up like this again."

Atsu smiled. "That's good, keep at your best."

Neji hid a chuckle. "Lee and his ways."

* * *

**This is a short story I wanted to do, and to test out some things. I have doubts about if I am doing well with the following- **

**Dialogue- got constructive criticism before that said it was stilted and did not sound like real people talking. **

**Description- feel it's a bit lacking. **

**Characters- felt when I did stories before that they were cookie cutter or something. **

**Replacing dialogue tags with action tags- this is something I am trying to do, to make things flow better.**

**If there are any problems with the above things or anything else, please do tell in the comments. Constructive Criticism is greatly appreciated. **


End file.
